Some entertainment companies in order to hype their new actor, they often boasted about the actor being born with a strong sense of camera direction and they rarely had NGs on set, people who knew a little about the entertainment industry knew that it was pure nonsense.
[TN: NGs—- Not Good or a bad take]
Walking didn’t depend entirely on the actor’s sense of camera direction, but mainly on their personal practical experience, but every professional actor had made great efforts on it.
In order to save time, the crew directly made a mark on the ground as a reminder, how many steps to take after their sentence ended was clearly written.
“The main thing you need to pay attention to is the No.3 camera. When you change your expression, turn slightly to the right and don’t block the other actors.” The performance director was a woman, and was tall enough to reach Li Zhiqing’s shoulder. Li Zhiqing bent over and lowered his head, he didn’t let her feel any oppression from his height.
He remembered everything she said, and his attitude was serious at the moment.
His long, dense eyelashes that curled up at the end were like fans in front of his eyes, occasionally lifting up and falling down to reveal his focused, clear eyes.
The performance director’s son was working abroad, and he had been away a lot. The mother’s love that had been accumulated for a long time and had nowhere to be released was immediately awakened, and the more she talked, the softer her tone became, and at the end, she started trying to reassure him: “Don’t be nervous, Xiao Chen just had some NGs all morning because he could barely find the feeling, the bottom line of Director Deng’s patience has long been worn out by him, even if you miss a few times, he won’t say anything, you can ask again if you forgot anything.”
Li Zhiqing smiled: “If I still make mistakes after you’ve said so much, how can I have the face to ask you.”
The performance director had heard a lot of flattering words with similar meanings, but once she was flattered by this sweet voice, together with Li Zhiqing’s open expression, she immediately smiled.
Just after, Chen Yipei, who had finished filming, came over and grabbed a handful of flower petals in distress: “Teacher, I didn’t have a lot of NGs on the first day. That time, Director Deng was clearly angry with the others.”
After defending himself, Chen Yipei took a few steps closer to Li Zhiqing and shrugged: “I’ll secretly teach you about positioning tips, which I learnt myself.”
After arriving at the shooting site, Li Zhiqing paid a lot of attention to Chen Yipei out of vigilance.
As a newcomer to acting, Chen Yipei also wanted to leave a good impression on the people in the industry, so he was open and cheerful at all times on the set, and could gossip with anyone, and the staff treated him without restraint.
If this person hadn’t lied about his birthday to test Li Zhiqing’s birth date in the name of delivering the script, Li Zhiqing wouldn’t have rejected him.
Seeing the other’s arms coming towards him, Li Zhiqing’s face was full of smiles, but his fingers slightly loosened decisively, and the script he held fell to the ground.
Li Zhiqing lifted his brow and opened his eyes, as if he was shocked by the sudden drop of the script. He deliberately paused for a moment, then bent down cleanly to pick up the script, and then stood opposite Chen Yipei.
His movements were so natural, his expression so impeccable, and his timing so perfect that Chen Yipei didn’t realize that he was deliberately avoiding him. He reached for the script when it slipped and failed to catch it, and when he saw that Li Zhiqing had already picked it up, he withdrew his hand.
“I wonder how you’re not embarrassed to teach others.” Cheng Jiarun heard the movements here when her makeup was being applied. As soon as she came over, she teased Chen Yipei relentlessly. ” You must have forgotten your NGs. It’s better for you to recite the rest of your lines if you have such passion. ”
Chen Yipei had the courage to talk back in the morning, but once she gave him a serious lecture, he was a bit of a coward, and now he could only bow his head and admit his mistake, he waved his hand at the others and walked to the backyard, as if he was really going to recite his lines.
As soon as Chen Yipei left, Li Zhiqing immediately loosened his tense muscles, and even his breathing felt a lot smoother.
Facing him, Cheng Jiarun was a lot more gentle and quiet: “There are five minutes of rest time, you can first become familiar with the camera, pay attention to find the right place.” She stopped speaking and went to rest.
Lai Zhiqing thanked her, walked to the middle of the set to the surrounding cameras and looked at the ground markings one by one, then he finally tried to walk according to a specific track, he didn’t reach the end, when he suddenly heard a loud bellow not far away.
“Where are you sitting? Don’t you know the rules?”
Li Zhiqing looked over, only to see a camera man, he rushed over to the little girl sitting on the camera box and pulled her away angrily.
Everywhere immediately went silent.
With all eyes on her, the little girl’s face turned red and she kept bowing and apologizing, saying that she had just given way to someone else and it just so happened that the lens box was behind her and she was so tired that she wanted to rest a bit.
Li Zhiqing looked at the frowning camera man, strangely he felt that his expression wasn’t angry, but rather a little more scrupulous.
“Zhiqing, will you drink water?” Song Junlin moved to stand next to him, and shook the mineral water in his hand, “There’s a queue over there, so I took this from the car.”
Li Zhiqing glanced at his somewhat dry lips and shook his head, “You went to the back again as a free labourer?”
Song Junlin immediately unscrewed the bottle cap and drank it, he pulled Li Zhiqing to a less crowded place and whispered: “I just went to chat with the crew, they’re really miserable.”
“What?” Li Zhiqing didn’t understand.
“A day’s salary is sixty, if you’re not liked by the crew, you’ll be fired by the head of the group.” Song Junlin muttered close to his ear, his voice was so small that even Li Zhiqing struggled to hear it, “The lowest field workers are worse, they are insulted and shouted at, yet they have to take it.”
Li Zhiqing saw the young girl being scolded and then she went to the leader’s office to be lectured further: “People have their own aspirations.”
“So is your ambition here too?” Song Junlin screwed the cap back on the bottle and lightly bumped his shoulder, “Thanks for today, I now know a lot of things. The boss lady asked me to buy a few boxes of vegetables to bring back, so I’ll leave a little early.”
After he left, the break ended, and Li Zhiqing was briefly reminded once again to walk in position before the shooting continued.
Cheng Jiarun really deserved being called the queen of the audience, not only was she able to enter the scene quickly, but she was also able to influence Li Zhiqing’s emotions.
Nevertheless, Li Zhiqing still felt more uncomfortable than during the audition.
It wasn’t that he was nervous, nor was it that the environment was nerve-wracking, there was simply an uncomfortable feeling that permeated his body and mind that only occasionally popped up when the shooting started, but it didn’t make him too uncomfortable.
While coping with the discomfort, Li Zhiqing avoided making mistakes and changed angles after a few scenes, but his back had a layer of fine sweat.
He didn’t know if it was because of the high concentration for a long time and excessive physical exertion, he began to feel a little heavy-headed when he took a break in the evening, and when Song Junlin came to deliver the box lunch again, he didn’t even bother to answer him.
“Do you remember the one who was scolded before?” Song Junlin suddenly whispered, “I just heard someone say that she was scolded because she was sitting on the camera box.”
Lai Zhiqing was stunned: “Taboo?”
“How do you know?” This time Song Junlin froze, “I didn’t even finish.”
Li Zhiqing responded: “Folk have a lot of similar customs, don’t allow women to touch the camera box, It’s estimated that they are afraid of shooting something that cannot be shot.”
Speaking of things that couldn’t be captured, a cool breeze slowly arose, and a muffled thunder popped up in the sky.
Song Junlin patted the goosebumps on his arms: “…… bah bah, I don’t want to talk about it.”
Li Zhiqing thought of something and pulled up his sleeve and went to read the copper coin stuck on his wrist.
This copper coin was extremely old, in the square hole was a black braided rope, the writing on the surface was blurred, he couldn’t identify the dynasty it was created in, and it was coated with a thick and moist black layer, which contrasted with his white skin.
“What are you doing!” Song Junlin knew the nature of copper coins and amulets, and he felt even colder. “Is there really something?!”
Li Zhiqing was relieved and pulled down his sleeve: “What can there be? I was just checking to see if I lost anything.”
Somehow, it was the treasure of his heart. After so many years, there was no change. It wasn’t false to say sometimes evil wasn’t close. His present state might be because he was too tired.
Song Junlin couldn’t stand it: “Then don’t finish that sentence and look at it like that. You made me scared.”
Li Zhiqing laughed at his timidity, he covered himself with his jacket and closed his eyes to recuperate, so he could start shooting in a much better state, but that uncomfortable feeling was still there.
He secretly laughed at himself for being camera-phobic and not being born to move in front of the camera.
After the last close-up, Li Zhiqing was relieved to be free from the discomfort, but when Cheng Jiarun moved her fingertips to the back of his hand, the thought “Leave” suddenly popped into Li Zhiqing’s head.
The message exploded in his head without a sound, causing Li Zhiqing shiver and he subconsciously took a half step back.
Cheng Jiarun seemed to be stunned by him, and only after two seconds did she take her hand back: “Are you okay?”
Li Zhiqing didn’t even realise that his face had lost colour in a moment: “…… I’m fine, it’s because I’ve been tensing up, and I got tired when I relaxed.”
Cheng Jiarun politely told him to take a good rest, summoned her assistant to hand Li Zhiqing a carton of milk, and went to reapply her makeup for the rest of the shoot.
Li Zhiqing’s head was filled with the word “Leave”, after leaving the scene, his back was plastered with cold sweat and when the wind blew, he felt so cold.
“Zhiqing, don’t scare me, what’s wrong with you?” Song Junlin almost couldn’t keep up with the speed of Li Zhiqing’s steps.
Li Zhiqing was chilled by the wind and spoke while walking: “I’m hungry, I seem to have a low blood sugar level.”
“I brought dinner, I’ll go get you a heating pad.” Song Junlin could see that he was pale and felt a little apprehensive.
“It’s okay, let’s go back and eat.” Li Zhiqing’s state of mind was messed up but he didn’t forget to take care of Song Junlin’s emotions, he pulled the corners of his mouth into a smile for him.
Supporting actors with special roles lines got a higher salary than an ordinary supporting actor, after deduction, they got a total of one hundred and fifty-five yuan daily.
This time, Song Junlin didn’t have the heart to complain, the work of a supporting actor was really tiring and miserable, he was in a hurry to take Li Zhiqing outside, the car keys were already in his hand, he could turn on the heater.
Just as they stepped out of the door, Song Junlin opened up the umbrella, Lai Zhiqing suddenly stopped under the eaves.
“What’s wrong?” Song Junlin turned around, thinking he was about to faint, he made a move to reach out to help him.
Li Zhiqing pushed his hand away and shook his head, his face glowing as he lifted his left hand up.
His wrist was extremely pale, the black braided rope dangled on it, and the copper coin fell on the lower end and swung forward twice, startled, he held it with his other hand.
Song Junlin didn’t see anything, but Li Zhiqing saw it clearly, just where the copper wire was attached to the braided rope, another hole had appeared.